Supports Advice

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steve220
Posts: 67
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2016 2:32 pm

Supports Advice

Post by steve220 » Wed Dec 14, 2016 2:25 pm

Looking to the group gurus for advice on getting a smoother finish on the bottom of curved parts. The part below shows what I'm getting currently with a layer height of .2mm. I've also attached a pic of the support settings I'm using in S3D.
roughbottom.jpg
Settings:
roughbottomsettings.jpg

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Jules
Posts: 3144
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:36 am

Re: Supports Advice

Post by Jules » Wed Dec 14, 2016 3:21 pm

You've got gravity working against you on a shape like that....it would be very hard to improve it much (without cutting it) over what you show there if you are working with a single nozzle machine.

1. You can tweak the S3d settings a bit and it might help, but it will give you a harder time when you remove the supports.
Try Support Infill angles of 45° and -45° to create a cross-hatched pattern on the support structure.
You can also mess with the Support Pillar Resolution - take it down to 1.5 mm. And increase the Extra Inflation Distance to about 1.0 mm.

2. Best thing to do (with a single) is cut that design so that the parts sit flat on the plate and then glue the parts together after.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3431&p=23501&hilit=How+To%3A#p23501

3. Best thing to do with a dual is use a dissolving or easily detaching support filament in the alternate nozzle and change the vertical separation to 0.

ksevcik
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:07 am
Location: Houston, TX

Re: Supports Advice

Post by ksevcik » Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:49 pm

Chances are your dense support is sagging and not supporting as much as you'd like. I would try 2-3 dense support layers, or a higher % on the sparse infill. Maybe both. It's not like you have to worry about squeezing the support out of a tight space or anything, it could be a completely solid piece that pulls off the bottom, it's just you'd use a little more material.

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